Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.86%, while the S&P 500 index fell 2.20%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 1.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 4.13% or 11.18 points to trade at 281.68 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) added 3.53% or 4.98 points to end at 145.98 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was up 1.12% or 1.63 points to 147.66 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 8.88% or 3.14 points to trade at 32.23 in late trade. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) declined 6.34% or 2.94 points to end at 43.44 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) shed 5.40% or 5.83 points to 102.17.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which rose 6.24% to 19.24, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) which was up 4.13% to settle at 281.68 and Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC) which gained 3.95% to close at 69.02.
The worst performers were Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC) which was down 12.29% to 7.71 in late trade, PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH) which lost 11.74% to settle at 42.33 and Helmerich and Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which was down 11.01% to 16.32 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LTRPB) which rose 629.49% to 34.69, Comstock Holding Companies Inc (NASDAQ:CHCI) which was up 60.00% to settle at 2.560 and Golden Bull Ltd (NASDAQ:DNJR) which gained 41.28% to close at 1.5400.
The worst performers were Homology Medicines Inc (NASDAQ:FIXX) which was down 27.77% to 13.97 in late trade, Obalon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:OBLN) which lost 27.61% to settle at 1.180 and Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) which was down 27.00% to 0.2750 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2460 to 451 and 38 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2085 fell and 578 advanced, while 50 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.16% to 40.84.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.46% or 25.90 to $1743.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.20% or 0.04 to hit $20.15 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.01 to trade at $27.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.00% to 1.0908, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 107.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.73% at 99.605.